Submit interesting and specific facts that you just found out (not broad information you looked up, TodayILearned is not /r/wikipedia).

Posting rules

Submissions must be verifiable. Please link directly to a reliable source that supports every claim in your post title.Images alone do not count as valid references. Videos are fine so long as they come from reputable sources (e.g. BBC, Discovery, etc).

No personal opinions, anecdotes or subjective statements (e.g "TIL xyz is a great movie").

No news or recent sources. News and any sources (blog, article, press release, video, etc.) more recent than two months are not allowed.

Nothing related to recent politics.

No misleading claims. Posts that omit essential information, or present unrelated facts in a way that suggest a connection will be removed.

Rephrase your post title if the following are not met:

Titles must begin with "TIL ..."

Make them descriptive, concise and specific (e.g. not "TIL something interesting about bacon").

Titles must be able to stand on their own without requiring readers to click on a link. Starting your title with a why/what/who/where/how modifier should be unnecessary.*

"TIL about ..." and other broad posts don't belong on TIL. Try /r/Wikipedia, etc. instead, or be more specific (and avoid the word "about").

I love how everyone complains about how much people link to Wiki articles in TIL, and then any time someone submits a website that ISN'T wikipedia it gets Reddit ddosed to death and someone has to link to the wiki anyway.

"A firm believer in UFOs, Valentich had accumulated numerous articles about them and watched movies on the subject, and had told his father Guido that he was worried what UFOs could do if they attacked. His father told investigators that Frederick and his mother had watched a UFO move off at great speed earlier that year."

It says so without any citation in the Wikipedia article so it must be true.

A firm believer in UFOs, Valentich had accumulated numerous articles about them and watched movies on the subject, and had told his father Guido that he was worried what UFOs could do if they attacked. His father told investigators that Frederick and his mother had watched a UFO move off at great speed earlier that year.

I just find it weird that the aliens normally kidnap drunks and junkies. If Stephen Hawking one day came out as being abducted by aliens I'd be more likely to believe in them, that or he's got a virus.

I remember there being a bunch of problems with this report, I remember them saying he said he was travelling to a location too far for his plane to travel, what he told his family he was going to get varied from person to person, there were reports of a Cessna landing not too far from where he took off, he was also obsessed with aliens and UFO's.

What you're saying about him being obsessed would make sense. It's the same reason why everyone on Ghost Hunters always takes the gigantic leap of seeing a ghost instead of something that would be much more logical.

I guess the issue I have with the idea he staged it is where is he now? Does it make sense to end your life and start a new one just a stage a UFO hoax? I'd say strong currents pulling his plane out of the search zone before it sank is the much more reasonable explanation

Regardless of this event being true or not, the chances of it being first contact are ludicrous.

EDIT: By this I mean that, given fifteen thousand (very rough number) years of human history, and the number of 'sightings' in the last century, versus the amount of time available to aliens to become a galaxy-faring civilization (I'll be conservative and say six billion years), it is extremely unlikely that they discovered us in the last hundred years.

In one minute it will travel ~18,000,000km which means it could travel around the Earth 449 times.

In one hour light will travel ~1,080,000,000km.

In one day it will have gone ~25,920,000,000km.

That gives us the distance of ~9,467,280,000,000km to a single light year.

Alpha Centauri, the nearest star to ours and the closest solar system that an advanced alien civilization could be coming from is 4.367 light years away.

That means Alpha Centauri is approximately 25 trillion miles away.

At our present rate of technological application it would take us more than 150,000 years (or more time than human civilization has existed) to travel that distance.

Go ahead and exponentially double our present ability. Now double it again. And again. And again. And again.

Keep doubling it until it becomes a manageable amount of time... maybe 10 years? maybe 1 year? Maybe a month? Worm holes might be able to do it instantly...

My point is two fold:

1.) Any civilization with the requisite technology to accomplish this feat is so sophisticated that the idea of them getting here and then crashing is fucking laughable. Don't tell me about Murphy's Law. It's fucking laughable.

2.) As our civilization is already in possession of technology that allows us to appear hidden by radar (stealth) and as we are already experimenting with visual cloaking devices it is reasonable to expect that these aliens, who just came 25 trillion miles, are also aware of such "mysteries of science." That means they could stay completely hidden from our means of detection if they so chose. That means if they are coming here, and we can see them that they want to be seen. Question: Why do they always appear in Montana, and South Dakota, and never anywhere that has a lot of good quality cameras, lots of people, newsrooms, no cloud cover, and good sunlight?

If first contact has already happened then it was done in secret. There are some interesting ideas down that rabbit hole, I suppose, but at the end of the day whatever our new alien overlords want is going to happen. The Christian right is not going to be able to hide in the mountains and wage a successful guerrilla war against them. No amount of preparation or "truth seeking" is going to change the reality of the situation which is that any civilization capable of traveling 25 trillion (or more) miles in a manageable amount of time is so far technologically beyond our comprehension that "resistance is futile."

EDIT: Thank you for reading and up voting but the following content is much more interesting and critical to our lives today:

The other bonus is another gift to us. The money earned by this novel will be going to directly and substantially support Heinlein's dream, and the dream we, Heinlein's Children, share. Earnings will be going to the advancement of human exploration of space. When you purchase "For Us, the Living" you are also contributing, in a real and meaningful way, the furtherment of this dream. Yet again, Heinlein 'pays it forward.'

The theory was presented by German statistician and economist G. F. Knapp in 1895,[4] with important contributions also by Alfred Mitchell-Innes. It was referenced in the 1930 Treatise on Money of John Maynard Keynes,[5] which cited Knapp and "Chartalism" in its opening pages.[6] Chartalism experienced a revival under Keynes and Abba P. Lerner,[7] and has a number of modern proponents.

Did you have to bring religion and single out christians in this well put together posting? It wont just be christians freaking out and running for the hills if alien invaders/ambassadors come a knocking on our atmosphere.

I took it as him comparing what the Taliban and other groups like it , are doing in to the US army. The military are far more advanced in terms of technology and training but the Taliban are using the mountains as hideouts and popping out every once in a while to attack.

I'm not saying it's not likely there are other forms of life. I fully believe there are. Just because there is other life that doesn't automatically make it visit Earth.

The Universe is large. Anyone who thinks we have visitors fails to understand how large.

The Universe is also old. In 1000 years look how far we've advanced. In 1000 more where will we be? This adds in the factor of Apes and Angels.

And the Universe is very homogeneous. Why the hell would any life be interested in us? Our water? Our diamonds? Even our primitive equipment can locate immense pockets of these and other things in the regions around us.

To be friendly? I doubt it. The ability to travel between the stars automatically means you have the ability to destroy a planet. Imagine a few pounds of rocks accelerated to near light speed and left on course to hit the Earth. Drawing attention to yourself at best means you have painted a target on yourself.

All speculation of course, as is anything regarding life outside of earth, but the statistics don't lean towards aliens probing the anuses of mankind. In fact, you'd think it would be fairly obvious since 'aliens' became popular in culture (and sightings went up) when entertainment started focusing on space due to scientific advances allowing more interest on space.

Not saying it's people who are confused or lying... but it's people who are confused or lying.

Those were some fun links to read but I think the people writing the articles seriously underestimate other alien civilizations.

Mainly that, there's no conceivable way we would ever be a threat to an advanced civilization and that, even with our tenuous and infantile morality, I would not count on an alien civilization being so basic or lacking any morality of their own.

Even if we had the power to ruin one of their planets, would they simply annihilate us without warning? Our planets still contains wolves, although we have done a number on them... we don't eliminate them out of compassion for life, not because it is impossible. Even if we, as a civilization, have jaws which can clamp down on another civilization's neck, certainly there would be a different way of dealing with us that blowing us straight-the-fuck up.

Could an alien species learn space travel without curiosity being part of their personality make up, though? To originally think of the idea "hey, what if we could GO INTO SPACE?!". To me that is proof that it is certainly possible to have friendly, curious visitors. Not necessarily more likely than them being bent on world domination, but still possible. I'm sure humans wouldn't be the only one with the prime directive.

I think if you're the type of person who just spontaneously gets full detail, open-eyed hallucinations, you're rarely the type of person who goes through all the training necessary to become a pilot...

Hallucinations are a serious thing. People take crazy amounts of drugs just to get stuff to look "wobbly", let alone see hovering objects...?

I get the whole Occam's Razor thing, but how "simple" is it to assume that someone could hallucinate that heavily? And then if he simply crashed as a result, it would not be very hard to find a flaming wreckage...

Well, there's this thing called hypoxia that pilots need to be aware of. Commonly, it occurs when flying too high, and you become starved of oxygen. It doesn't need to be related to altitude, though. An excess of fumes (from exhaust, gas fumes, or perhaps even burning electronics) can cause this as well. While people who are in better physical shape are more resistant to hypoxia, no one is immune from it. In moderate to severe cases, it can cause hallucinations.

Sadly, by the time the hallucinations would kick in, the pilot is most likely far past the mental capacity to recognize the problem and attempt to fix it (either by breathing on pure O2, or descending in altitude), and most likely he would pass out shortly after. After that, a crash is an almost certainty.

So, your basis of thinking is wrong. Every single person who passes a flight physical, no matter how healthy they are, are at risk of becoming hypoxic.

The "flaming wreckage" you speak of is absent in this case because he was flying over a body of water. Also, depending on the kind of instruments he was using in the plane, a well known position for his crash may not have been possible. Seeing as it is Australia, that's a lot of land to go searching for a single plane crash had it been a flight over land.

I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just curious, but according to this site, Hypoxia doesn't set in until the pilot is at 5,000 to 11,400 feet. According to the Valentich disappearance Wiki page, he gave his altitude as only 4,500 feet. Does this change anything you said or is it still possible he was hallucinating?

If there was a CO2 leak, which is possible, altitude matters much less. You can become hypoxic on the ground from CO2 poisoning and the symptoms are much the same. Look up hypemic hypoxia to learn more.

There's also something called schizophrenia which commonly develops in males in their 20s and 30s. But if the pilot was a female under 20, we can probably rule this out.

Also, if you want tostart a new life, landing an expensive plane in the outback and selling it to a shady character is a good start. Just pretend you're over water so they don't look too hard for the plane.

People hallucinateall the time and it is not necessarily an indication of a serious illness or substance abuse. Our brain and our eyes are not perfect instruments for seeing and interprenting our surroundings and sometimes they make mistakes and sometimes they make serious mistakes like when you are tired or when it's getting dark.

This explanation is a lot simpler than having some form of alien life traveling for thousands of years to go to our planet just to mess with a pilot and then kidnap him. And here's the kicker they don't announce that they are here they don't invade or otherwise make contact they just fly around makeing patterns in corn fields and abduct crazy people...

I think if you're the type of person who just spontaneously gets full detail, open-eyed hallucinations, you're rarely the type of person who goes through all the training necessary to become a pilot...

"He had twice applied to enlist in the Royal Australian Air Force but was rejected because of inadequate educational qualifications."

Hallucinations are a serious thing. People take crazy amounts of drugs just to get stuff to look "wobbly", let alone see hovering objects...?

"A firm believer in UFOs, Valentich had accumulated numerous articles about them and watched movies on the subject, and had told his father Guido that he was worried what UFOs could do if they attacked. His father told investigators that Frederick and his mother had watched a UFO move off at great speed earlier that year."

And then if he simply crashed as a result, it would not be very hard to find a flaming wreckage...

"The possibility remains that Valentich staged his own disappearance: despite ideal conditions, at no time was the aircraft plotted on radar, casting doubts as to whether it was ever near Cape Otway; and Melbourne Police received reports of a light aircraft making a mysterious landing not far from Cape Otway at the same time as Valentich's disappearance."

It's not hard to imagine a guy obsessed with UFOs jumping to the conclusion of UFOs when he hallucinates even mildly. Some people even think he might have been disoriented and flying upside down, seeing his planes reflection in the water "above" him, which would explain how it was "hovering" and matching his speed. Plus he had been rejected everywhere for his belief in UFOs and it is possible he staged this just to promote their legitimacy. This is a very common thing among people obsessed.

Also, the late stages of hypoxia, which is a common problem for pilots could lead to someone saying just about anything and could also result in a dead pilot and lost aircraft. That's just my first idea, having not even read the article.

EDIT: I misread your comment and changed mine, because I actually agree with you and he's not a military pilot.

EDIT2: Also they're a types of clouds which can look like UFO's, and can also be associated with turbulence: Lenticular Clouds. That would fit this situation perfectly as his transmission "it's hovering and it's not an aircraft" would be explained.

After reading the full Wiki article, I would personally say it was a suicide and he decided to fuck with "the man" one last time before he died.

He was a determined flier - despite clearly not being cut out - having failed to get into the RAAF twice, and failed to get a commercial pilot's licence twice. As well as a firm believer in UFOs.

He was clearly never going to get his wish of "a career in aviation" so I guess he thought fuck it, and decided to die whilst doing what he loved, causing a bit of chaos and getting publicity for UFOs.

when he filed a flight plan at Moorabbin Airport, Melbourne, on 21 October 1978. His stated intention was to fly to King Island in Bass Strait via Cape Otway, to pick up passengers, and return to Moorabbin. However, he had told his family, girlfriend and acquaintances that he intended to pick up crayfish. During the accident investigations it was learned there were no passengers waiting to be picked up at King Island, he had not ordered crayfish and could not have done so because crayfish were not available anyway.

I think made this whole thing up and disappeared. Why else would he fly to an island and make up excuses as to why he was? there were no passengers to be picked up or crayfish. He sent out the transmission trying to fool people into thinking he was abducted. Then he must've flown somewhere, hid the plane, and started a new life or something.

It is the same way that I am fairly sure that there are many critters in the world that could conceivably kill and devour me for sustenance as I sleep. I just haven't seriously believed that any of them are hiding under my bed since I was about 9 or 10.

We cannot be the only planet to harbour life, and I don't see how we could be anywhere near the oldest species. I think there is a possibility that we are being visited, but we just don't enough about space travel yet to be of any use / purpose.

If a species is even just two thousand years older than us, the amount of space travel knowledge they would have is unbelievable. Look back two thousand years on our timeline, we didn't know shit. Imagine what we'll know in the year 4012

Exactly, a few thousands years and we will be living totally different lifes. Now take that to a million years, or even a billion years. It is crazy when you think about it (but we are made out to be crazy for thinkng about it lol)

"Valentich said the aircraft was "orbiting" above him and that it had a shiny metal surface and a green light on it. This was followed by 28 seconds silence before Valentich reported that the aircraft had vanished. There was a further 25-second break in communications before Valentich reported that it was now approaching from the southwest. Twenty-nine seconds later, at 19:12:09 Valentich reported that he was experiencing engine problems and was going to proceed to King Island. There was brief silence until he said "it is hovering and it's not an aircraft".[1] This was followed by 17 seconds of unidentified noise, described as being "metallic, scraping sounds",[5] then all contact was lost."

I am an independent forensic photographic analyst, and have seen the time lapse photos taken by the man on shore, and can confirm that the object emerging from the water was of unusual size and traveling at high speeds. What's even more interesting is that it appeared to be organic.

I decided to dig deeper, and was contacted by a woman, who chose to remain anonymous, over the phone, but who directed me to meet her in a private location. When we met, she told me that she knew all about the object in the water and what caused the plane crash. Having dealt with informants before, and knowing she would want something in return (credit, money, etc), I asked her what her price was. She bent down and said "I need about tree fiddy."

Well it was about that time I noticed my informant was about 8 stories tall and was a crustacean from the paleolithic era. That Loch Ness Monster was the cause of all this, not some UFO.

Well, gee, Mulder, I was originally assinged to debunk your theories but after experiencing missing time, being abducted and impregnated by extraterrestrials and witnessing the take-off of an underground extraterrestrial mother ship in Antarctica, I'm not sure what to put in my report. FTFY

This is what I never understand about UFO abductions, why travel the vast distance to earth to take 1 man and then presumably travel all the way back to their home planet(s). I read somewhere that people believe this was just an elaborate suicide by him.

Isn't there a thing where g-forces from sharp turns on airplanes can make pilots pass out and have absurd hallucinations? That'd explain what he "saw" and why he wasn't found (crash). I think in some really fast planes they have a button that beeps that you have to push to turn off like an alarm clock that goes off when the plane's in conditions to make the pilot pass out.